It at least becomes an ice type which still puts it ahead of ice type families you wont see at all
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Pokemon Scarlet & Violet - 18th Nov 2022! **OFFICIAL INFO ONLY**
- Thread starter DHR-107
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Forward facing eyes, animalistic behavior. They look and sound like humans and have the abilities to immobilize us with dance and kisses. They're aggressive mimics, and the prey they mimic is us.
Just imagine you're walking in the woods and you think you hear a woman yelling for help. But no, instead this fucking thing is slowly dancing towards you. You try to flee but you can't, all you can do is dance. In your final moments you are put to sleep by a flurry of lovely kisses. Jynx begins to feed. The young Smoochum will eat well tonight.
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One of my biggest disappointments for ice types was snom. Not only does it show up super late as usual, but it was a nighttime evolution too. I was definitely interested in adding frosmoth to my in-game team, but the double-whammy of late weak ice type + time-based evolution meant it went straight to the box.
In terms of SV, I think the best hope for early ice types, which would still be kind of unsatisfying, might be to find them in a raid. That's how I ended up with early clobbopus and impidimp in SwSh. This of course assumes that the raid distribution and wild mon level scaling will be like it was in the wild area, which might not be the case since the wild area was supposed to be a swiss-army-knife of environments and SV looks like it'll have dedicated environments.
In terms of SV, I think the best hope for early ice types, which would still be kind of unsatisfying, might be to find them in a raid. That's how I ended up with early clobbopus and impidimp in SwSh. This of course assumes that the raid distribution and wild mon level scaling will be like it was in the wild area, which might not be the case since the wild area was supposed to be a swiss-army-knife of environments and SV looks like it'll have dedicated environments.
Oh, is it time for me to rant about Ice Stone again? Because I am still mad about that. In SwSh, the only stones not available pre-Gym 1 are Ice, Dusk, and Shiny. Of those, the Ice Stone becomes available last. The only exception is via the Digging Duo, and it took me a WEEK of grinding Watts to find one.
The Ice Rock is no better. Even when it's in an area you can reach early on(Alola), it's specifically closed off until lategame. Moss Rock is often available when mons are in their teens, and Special Magnetic Field is at least pre-lvl 30 in many cases. Ice is an awful defensive type, most Ice mons are bad, Ice moves are usually easily-available from the mandatory water type, and YET GF goes out of their way to make training an Ice-type member of your team as annoying as possible.
Yknow, on the note of Ice Rock, I think SV would be a pretty interesting game to bring back location-based evos. They wouldn't really be locked away at X point in progression since you can just take your mon to the part of the map to evolve it at any time. If Pokémon keeps the Open World formula going forward, this would honestly be a very interesting evolution method to bring back.
CTNC
Doesn't know how to attack
They did a locaction based evolution in SwSh, Galaran Yamask. After that, NO! PLEASE NO!
A location based evolution I think would be neat is leveling up Pawniard in the northern most region with some conditions as a split evolution.
Doing this normally gives you Bisharp, but you can also get the other Shogi/Chess pieces if you hold a specific item.
This would reference the promotion mechanic in Shogi and Chess, as well as make the Pawniard line more unique than it already is.
Yung Dramps
awesome gaming
A pawniard evo? What are you talking about? If this is leakstuff, be more careful with that stuff cmon.
It's not leakstuff, RIGHT? wink wink
MOD EDIT: A bit of profanity removed.
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No, definitely not. I just think Pawniard getting multiple split would be neat. No leaks here.
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So, um, I still got the TRAILER to look through. Going to use the Pokemon Direct as it shows both the "Hype Portion" and the "In-Depth Portion" in one video, so if you want to watch along click here:
MISSED SITE NEWS!
We need to quickly go back to the main site as I overlooked something! No, not the Pre-Order Bonus (I'll give my quick opinion on it: Meh, Floral-print, is that really the best you could think of? This was a leftover design, wasn't it?), but rather I missed the "Sprawling Landscapes" story at the top of the page! How? I think I scrolled to the bottom of the News I just never saw it. And of course it has a bunch of stuff I wanted to comment on.
Rotom Phone:
Rotom Dex, Rotom Phone, can't wait to see what the next Pokedex is gonna be... Rotom Phone. Well, maybe it'll look like those new folding screen phones or go old school and make it look like a PDA or...
Just take the old Rotom Phone, make the middle circle glow, and add an extra camera lens. You gotta be (MULCH)ing me.
HOW LAZY! Like, the new Rotom Phone is something they would do if they made a third version to SwSh! Look, I get it, you kind of backed yourself in a corner finally making a smartphone the Dex so anything you do would probably feel like going backwards. But instead of just throwing you hands in the air and doing the Rotom Phone again maybe start thinking outside the box, like maybe some hologram technology or, being your in a school, have it look like a notepad or laptop.
And you know what, I'm also kind of getting tired of the Dex being a Pokemon. Not just Rotom, like Masters uses a Porygon Phone so that idea has also been done. How about next game we go back to the Dex being just a device powered by a battery and not a Pokemon. Or maybe go mystical next time and have it be a magic book or a crystal ball. Okay, that doesn't sound quite right, but at least it would be something different than a Rotom-powered device! Or, if you're going to make it a Pokemon, let's make it a Legendary Pokemon!
At least the Map UI is looking detailed, this is good as it's going to be used a lot while exploring:
Neat it's letting us rotate the map now, help us get our bearings to know what direction to go. I don't really see an option for it but would be nice if they let you leave markers & maybe notes of later places you'd want to go back to.
Outdoor Pokemon Centers:
I'll be honest, I was hoping they'd call them something like "PokeCenter Station" or "PokeCenter Pump", oh well.
Well, even if they didn't change its name to reflect gas stations, they still had the nurse and the PokeMart guy dress up like station attendants, lol.
(No matter who you speak too, the other one is ALWAYS watching, waiting for THEIR turn...)
Not much else to say, just two more things:
So I mentioned that I was gonna watch through GameXplain's videos to see if they had anything more to say. If you're wondering why I'm specifically focused on GameXplain, I heard that GameXplain would sometimes be given game trailers early so that when it was publicly released they'd be able to roll out their videos asap (and who knows if they maybe were given some extra info on top of that). Well, turns out GameXplain may no longer be the goto place for video game analysis anymore, apparently they got caught in a controversy and their top staffers left. Oops.
Learning this, I still watched some of the videos, but knowing they are blind as we are I decided to skip the 2-hour speculation video (as I'm fully able to speculate till the Miltanks come home). But in the videos I did watch some points were made that I'll comment on (click on the video title to be taken to the video):
Direct Livestream Reaction (note this one is over an hour long, though you can skip to when the Direct starts as they don't really talk about anything major; infact my comments are responses to speculation done after the Direct has ended and they're quickly going over it):
Website Tour:
14:00: Open World Scavenging: Reading about Arven's goal of cooking recipes, Jake suggests that since the game is open world there might be some scavenging for ingredients to cook recipes with Arven. And I'll admit, scavenging things in Legends: Arceus was a pretty zen thing to do. I wouldn't say it was fun, but I would say it did feel rewarding when it came time to craft things and you had plenty of supplies (and infuriating when you black out and lost like a 3rd of the items you spent a couple of hours collecting, if scavenging for items is back and you can lose them please decrease how much you lose and/or include a way to get them back without connecting online). But that was Legends: Arceus, what about in a main series game? SwSh SORT of had scavenging in the Wild Area, though it was mainly just money fodder items (or items which are useful like Evo Stones but you don't have any Pokemon to use them on so they just accumulate in your Bag until you sell a bunch of them for a lot of money essentially making them money fodder). SwSh did introduce all those curry ingredients, if they let us find Berries and those ingredients by scavenging for the purpose of having Alven make recipes I guess that wouldn't be so bad. We have the PokeMart again for our PokeBall and Potion needs, but getting a healthy & hearty meal? Gonna need someone with a sense of cooking for that!
Clavell The Secret Villain:
Skipping over the whole "he's EVIL" spiel, one oddly interesting thing that was pointed out was that Clavell keeps all his Pokemon in Premier Balls, aka the all white Poke Balls (except the red seal around the middle of it) you only get when you buy 10 normal Poke Balls (normally, not talking about the Poke Ball Shop in Kalos). I'm not quite sure what that says about Clavell's character, like its a deliberate choice so feels like its saying something. That he's rich? Eh, Poke Balls don't seem that expensive, especially to someone who runs an Academy. Well, I guess it could be a joke on how he probably has to buy LOTS of Poke Balls for the students and staff and so also gets Premier Balls in the bundle too as a bonus. So maybe a way to show he keeps the school well stocked thus a good Director? Hmm, maybe that's a bit too subtle. Eh, let's just say its because he has white hair; maybe what he truly needs is a pair of red lens glasses to match.
17+ Points of Interest In Paldea:
Don't worry, only covering six of them:
Okay, I think that's it for all my planned stuff!
9:28: Wonder if Regina or a similar trainer is going to return to do the Regional Variant trades (though we may have to wait till the DLC like in Sword & Shield). Guess the big question would be how they'll handle the Hisuian Pokemon, will they even be offered or can you only get them via tranfer from Legends: Arceus (or trading with another player). The latter they could then still count them non-canon (unless there's someplace else in the game you can take them to do something), though if they are offered I'm gonna need an explaination how these species are back.
9:30: Something to note about th Deerling family here. These are in their Autumn form, but at 10:01 we see a Summer Sawsbuck. Now I don't think that means seasons are back, rather I think they may have decided to just place the Deerling family in locations where you can find eahc form. If I were to guess: Spring in the the south, Summer in the west, Winter in the north, and Autumn in the east. I approve of this change, unless its a game with the seasons mechanic, if thy're going to add in the Deerling family have them just appear in four locations which matches their forms. On a similar note, if the Shellos family are in the game, just put the pink ones in the west and the blue ones in the east; no need to complicate things with real world locations.
9:44: Now the site says people of all ages attend the Academy, but I'm looking at the students being sent on the Treasure Hunt and none look over 18 (the oldest one there looks to be Alven). Though I do see a few Youngster-aged kids in the crowd, um, are you sure you want to send them out on the Treasure Hunt? Feel that's a VERY big task for kids their age.
9:45: Assuming the surprised trainer scene is when we first encounter Koraidon/Moraidon, that cutscene seems chopped up during this part.
9:55: Though this looks to be happening at the front gate of the Academy, seemingly the scene where the player first gets on Koraidon/Moraidon. Maybe, like in SwSh, you do meet the Legendaries early on around the time you get your Starter, but you just form a bond and it's not until you set out on the Treasure Hunt do they appear again to let you ride them.
10:02: Gogoat be like "Pfft, show off".
10:17: Fill 'er up, unleaded please.
10:20: So these are exciting scenes as we get a nice look inside the Academy and they REALLY put the work in. A big 3-floor library (wonder how much flavor text they did for the bookshelves) & decent sized classrooms. And later one we see more at 13:21 with a stocked cafateria (please let there be a Battle Buffet challenge). I wonder how extensive they went, or were those the highlights and we can expect plenty of locked/"I don't need to go in there" doors.
10:22: Are we sure that's just a Sunflora statue? If so, why did they sculpt it so it was frowning? This looks like a Sunflora that has some regrets choosing the potted life.
10:32: Did they add more definition to Beartic's stomach ruff?
10:35: This looks to be a mall cafeteria, but where's the mall? Doesn't look like there's one in Mesagoza. Could this be inside the giant building in the port city (which the site says has a big marketplace)?
10:36: A quick NPC/trainer showcase.
10:42: A snowman? YOU CAN'T TRICK ME THAT'S A G-DARMANITAN!
10:43: Lesson not to take the Paldea map 1:1, this gate isn't anywhere on the map. It has the red race flags so we know its the bridge before the Pokeball bridge city on the east side.
10:54: Fun that we're going to still have a small group of people on the sidelines watching the Gym Battles. The giant audience in SwSh was a neat idea though they may as well have been paper cut outs for all we could see of them.
10:56: Taking a closer look at this "hot rod", I'm not sure if it even as wheels or anything its using to roll around on. Outside of the fire decals, my eyes are drawn to that flag with a star and thunderbolt/stylized "S". Hint of a possible antagonist team, Team Star? And, yes, I said "a" because this three stories that could mean multiple antagonist groups. Like this hot rod is not associated with the League Challenge from what they've been hinting at, it has to do with the race flags storyline. Now it could also be it is one antagonist group but different members are part of different stories, I'm just keeping the options open until we know more. Oh, and rumor says that engine is apparently a Pokemon; I guess it does look differently designed compared to the rest of the "hot rod", though I'm gonna hold my tongue as if true they better explain its an artificial Pokemon cause that's a bit too on the nose.
11:12: As TheMantyke pointed out, it looks like the Legends: Arceus feature of sending out your Pokemon to hang out on the field is being kept, which is of course neat. Oh, and of course there's plenty of shots of the Starter following the player when on foot so Walking Pokemon is back too (and not restricted to one DLC area).
9:30: Something to note about th Deerling family here. These are in their Autumn form, but at 10:01 we see a Summer Sawsbuck. Now I don't think that means seasons are back, rather I think they may have decided to just place the Deerling family in locations where you can find eahc form. If I were to guess: Spring in the the south, Summer in the west, Winter in the north, and Autumn in the east. I approve of this change, unless its a game with the seasons mechanic, if thy're going to add in the Deerling family have them just appear in four locations which matches their forms. On a similar note, if the Shellos family are in the game, just put the pink ones in the west and the blue ones in the east; no need to complicate things with real world locations.
9:44: Now the site says people of all ages attend the Academy, but I'm looking at the students being sent on the Treasure Hunt and none look over 18 (the oldest one there looks to be Alven). Though I do see a few Youngster-aged kids in the crowd, um, are you sure you want to send them out on the Treasure Hunt? Feel that's a VERY big task for kids their age.
9:45: Assuming the surprised trainer scene is when we first encounter Koraidon/Moraidon, that cutscene seems chopped up during this part.
9:55: Though this looks to be happening at the front gate of the Academy, seemingly the scene where the player first gets on Koraidon/Moraidon. Maybe, like in SwSh, you do meet the Legendaries early on around the time you get your Starter, but you just form a bond and it's not until you set out on the Treasure Hunt do they appear again to let you ride them.
10:02: Gogoat be like "Pfft, show off".
10:17: Fill 'er up, unleaded please.
10:20: So these are exciting scenes as we get a nice look inside the Academy and they REALLY put the work in. A big 3-floor library (wonder how much flavor text they did for the bookshelves) & decent sized classrooms. And later one we see more at 13:21 with a stocked cafateria (please let there be a Battle Buffet challenge). I wonder how extensive they went, or were those the highlights and we can expect plenty of locked/"I don't need to go in there" doors.
10:22: Are we sure that's just a Sunflora statue? If so, why did they sculpt it so it was frowning? This looks like a Sunflora that has some regrets choosing the potted life.
10:32: Did they add more definition to Beartic's stomach ruff?
10:35: This looks to be a mall cafeteria, but where's the mall? Doesn't look like there's one in Mesagoza. Could this be inside the giant building in the port city (which the site says has a big marketplace)?
10:36: A quick NPC/trainer showcase.
- Black-haired woman in the black jacket was standing with 3 other people during Carvell's Treasure Hunt speech. Rumors say these are the Elite Four, notably she had a Hariyama standing behind her. So if she is a member of the Elite Four I'm guessing she's a Fighting-type specialist. Well eitherway I'm guessing she's at least an instructor at the Academy.
- Next looks to be another instructor as he's in front of a classroom, wearing a purple shirt (so guess this is Violet version?), and has a name tag. And boy, people are calling Clavell evil, this guy looks like a member of the Mishima family from Tekken.
- After that I think it's just a few Trainer Classes. Brown-haired woman in a white dress is likely a Beauty, we see the unmistakable karat gi of a Black Belt, a Spray Painter who is either a new class or Paldea's version of the Artist (I do like each gen they try to make classes like the Artist and Dancer a different type), and Yung Dramps pointed out the guy in the Pokestar Studios shirt is Paldea's Poke Maniac (and I like this idea for him instead of wearing half a monster suit).
10:42: A snowman? YOU CAN'T TRICK ME THAT'S A G-DARMANITAN!
10:43: Lesson not to take the Paldea map 1:1, this gate isn't anywhere on the map. It has the red race flags so we know its the bridge before the Pokeball bridge city on the east side.
10:54: Fun that we're going to still have a small group of people on the sidelines watching the Gym Battles. The giant audience in SwSh was a neat idea though they may as well have been paper cut outs for all we could see of them.
10:56: Taking a closer look at this "hot rod", I'm not sure if it even as wheels or anything its using to roll around on. Outside of the fire decals, my eyes are drawn to that flag with a star and thunderbolt/stylized "S". Hint of a possible antagonist team, Team Star? And, yes, I said "a" because this three stories that could mean multiple antagonist groups. Like this hot rod is not associated with the League Challenge from what they've been hinting at, it has to do with the race flags storyline. Now it could also be it is one antagonist group but different members are part of different stories, I'm just keeping the options open until we know more. Oh, and rumor says that engine is apparently a Pokemon; I guess it does look differently designed compared to the rest of the "hot rod", though I'm gonna hold my tongue as if true they better explain its an artificial Pokemon cause that's a bit too on the nose.
11:12: As TheMantyke pointed out, it looks like the Legends: Arceus feature of sending out your Pokemon to hang out on the field is being kept, which is of course neat. Oh, and of course there's plenty of shots of the Starter following the player when on foot so Walking Pokemon is back too (and not restricted to one DLC area).
14:10: Another sneak peak at three of the rumored members of the Elite Four, the black-haired woman along with an older woman and purple-haired woman. The one missing is a blonde guy in a blue jacket. I would assume all of them are instructors at the Academy, the students at the very least are excited to seem them, Clavell, and Jacq.
14:54: This looks like a new Trainer Class, specifically one who is also from the Academy! "Well, that makes sense, your entire class was sent out on the Treasure Hunt so you would run into some". Yeah, well many also thought the same thing for the Champion Cup in SwSh, but all the other trainers just ended up as NPCs waiting around in the Gyms as you watch their numbers dwindle as you go on. So seeing we might actually be battling fellow students also on the Treasure Hunt makes the Treasure Hunt feel bigger than the Champion Cup!
15:45: Now this is something I want to talk about: the new Pokedex UI. Instead of being a list, this time the Pokemon info are presented as (digital) books! As we see with Lechonks's entry, the first "page" is the book's cover that has the image of the Pokemon in its natural habitat, it's name in the Pokemon World language, Dex number (so the Pokemon World has its own letters but use the same numbers? Also what are the Unown supposed to be then?), a string of text underneath its name (not sure what that's supposed to be, looks kind of long to be the species category), and a barcode that would be on the back cover (lol). Now this is a cool idea in presentation, but how much information are we going to be told about the Pokemon? Being a book it implies there would be a few pages of information (or at last pictures), not just some quick trivia and where you can find the Pokemon. So I'm very curious what information we're going to get, and would we possibly need to do tasks like in Legends: Arceus to fill out more of the book (hopefully they'll keep the numbers reasonable this time around)?
16:16: So, I noticed when the Terastalize button was pressed, all the Moves lit up and notably the Grass-type move's logo had a light going around it. Does that mean to activate Sprigatito's Grass-type Terastal you have to select the Grass-type move? Or is it just indicating what Move would be powered-up by the Terastal? From what we know about Terastal I would think the latter, because if you needed to know a Move of the Type of the Terastal that would be a major restriction.
14:54: This looks like a new Trainer Class, specifically one who is also from the Academy! "Well, that makes sense, your entire class was sent out on the Treasure Hunt so you would run into some". Yeah, well many also thought the same thing for the Champion Cup in SwSh, but all the other trainers just ended up as NPCs waiting around in the Gyms as you watch their numbers dwindle as you go on. So seeing we might actually be battling fellow students also on the Treasure Hunt makes the Treasure Hunt feel bigger than the Champion Cup!
15:45: Now this is something I want to talk about: the new Pokedex UI. Instead of being a list, this time the Pokemon info are presented as (digital) books! As we see with Lechonks's entry, the first "page" is the book's cover that has the image of the Pokemon in its natural habitat, it's name in the Pokemon World language, Dex number (so the Pokemon World has its own letters but use the same numbers? Also what are the Unown supposed to be then?), a string of text underneath its name (not sure what that's supposed to be, looks kind of long to be the species category), and a barcode that would be on the back cover (lol). Now this is a cool idea in presentation, but how much information are we going to be told about the Pokemon? Being a book it implies there would be a few pages of information (or at last pictures), not just some quick trivia and where you can find the Pokemon. So I'm very curious what information we're going to get, and would we possibly need to do tasks like in Legends: Arceus to fill out more of the book (hopefully they'll keep the numbers reasonable this time around)?
16:16: So, I noticed when the Terastalize button was pressed, all the Moves lit up and notably the Grass-type move's logo had a light going around it. Does that mean to activate Sprigatito's Grass-type Terastal you have to select the Grass-type move? Or is it just indicating what Move would be powered-up by the Terastal? From what we know about Terastal I would think the latter, because if you needed to know a Move of the Type of the Terastal that would be a major restriction.
MISSED SITE NEWS!
We need to quickly go back to the main site as I overlooked something! No, not the Pre-Order Bonus (I'll give my quick opinion on it: Meh, Floral-print, is that really the best you could think of? This was a leftover design, wasn't it?), but rather I missed the "Sprawling Landscapes" story at the top of the page! How? I think I scrolled to the bottom of the News I just never saw it. And of course it has a bunch of stuff I wanted to comment on.
Rotom Phone:
Rotom Dex, Rotom Phone, can't wait to see what the next Pokedex is gonna be... Rotom Phone. Well, maybe it'll look like those new folding screen phones or go old school and make it look like a PDA or...
Just take the old Rotom Phone, make the middle circle glow, and add an extra camera lens. You gotta be (MULCH)ing me.
HOW LAZY! Like, the new Rotom Phone is something they would do if they made a third version to SwSh! Look, I get it, you kind of backed yourself in a corner finally making a smartphone the Dex so anything you do would probably feel like going backwards. But instead of just throwing you hands in the air and doing the Rotom Phone again maybe start thinking outside the box, like maybe some hologram technology or, being your in a school, have it look like a notepad or laptop.
And you know what, I'm also kind of getting tired of the Dex being a Pokemon. Not just Rotom, like Masters uses a Porygon Phone so that idea has also been done. How about next game we go back to the Dex being just a device powered by a battery and not a Pokemon. Or maybe go mystical next time and have it be a magic book or a crystal ball. Okay, that doesn't sound quite right, but at least it would be something different than a Rotom-powered device! Or, if you're going to make it a Pokemon, let's make it a Legendary Pokemon!
At least the Map UI is looking detailed, this is good as it's going to be used a lot while exploring:
Neat it's letting us rotate the map now, help us get our bearings to know what direction to go. I don't really see an option for it but would be nice if they let you leave markers & maybe notes of later places you'd want to go back to.
Outdoor Pokemon Centers:
I'll be honest, I was hoping they'd call them something like "PokeCenter Station" or "PokeCenter Pump", oh well.
Well, even if they didn't change its name to reflect gas stations, they still had the nurse and the PokeMart guy dress up like station attendants, lol.
(No matter who you speak too, the other one is ALWAYS watching, waiting for THEIR turn...)
Not much else to say, just two more things:
- So it looks like the marquees on top do change their ads. Nothing major, but helps gives the illusion of a living world (until you notice the same ads over and over again, though if you are maybe you should spend some time playing the game).
- The Rotomi looks to have been replaced by a vending machine. I wonder what that means for the Loto-ID or it's been replaced with something like earning tokens to use in the vending machine. Poke Jobs and the Card Maker are likely gone too, though I could see them changing the Card Maker from making a Trading Card to making a School ID or Driver License (what? You are driving after all, you should have a driver's license incase you get into an accident and need to swap insurance). Not sure about Poke Jobs, oh wait, maybe instead of your Pokemon helping out corporations they can instead help out the Academy! We can call them Poke Studies!
So I mentioned that I was gonna watch through GameXplain's videos to see if they had anything more to say. If you're wondering why I'm specifically focused on GameXplain, I heard that GameXplain would sometimes be given game trailers early so that when it was publicly released they'd be able to roll out their videos asap (and who knows if they maybe were given some extra info on top of that). Well, turns out GameXplain may no longer be the goto place for video game analysis anymore, apparently they got caught in a controversy and their top staffers left. Oops.
Learning this, I still watched some of the videos, but knowing they are blind as we are I decided to skip the 2-hour speculation video (as I'm fully able to speculate till the Miltanks come home). But in the videos I did watch some points were made that I'll comment on (click on the video title to be taken to the video):
Direct Livestream Reaction (note this one is over an hour long, though you can skip to when the Direct starts as they don't really talk about anything major; infact my comments are responses to speculation done after the Direct has ended and they're quickly going over it):
- 1:00:24: Accessing The Other Legendary: The video host, Jake, brings up the question that, if he trades over the other Legendary, would he be able to ride it instead of the Legendary in the game? I think that's a good question, I can think of two examples where the answer was no and yes. For the "no" example that would be Soaring on the back of one of the Eon Pokemon in ORAS; in Omega Ruby you got Latios, in Alpha Sapphire you got Latias, and not only couldn't you use the other but you always had to ride on their Mega Form (which, to be fair, does make them look exactly the same so in the end I guess didn't matter). The "yes" example would be having the option to switch between using Lunala or Solgaleo for the Ultra Space Ride in USUM. Now in USUM's case you weren't using your own Pokemon (aka Nebby) but rather the Ultra Recon Squad's Pokemon, you just needed to talk to the duo in Ultra Megalopolis to switch. Meanwhile in ORAS it was "your" Latios/Latias responding to your Eon Flute, though something to note is that even if you had traded away or released them it would still come to give you a ride when you play the Eon Flute. So, to get to my theory, I would like being able to switch between the two (so there is already bias) and will say it's possible, but it would have nothing to do with which one you "owned". Rather, it'll be more of a non-canon sort of thing where at the end of the game we'll be able to go talk with someone we haven't seen yet which has a connection to the Legendaries and they'll let us switch between which on we summoned to ride us around. I'm hopeful but at the same time not holding my breath.
- 1:02:19: No Gym Scaling: Jake is told about the leak saying that the Gyms do not scale. I haven't read any of the leaks myself, debating whether I want to, but I'm taking that means all the Gyms are going to have a set level. And I agree with Jake when he says he finds that hard to believe. We're told we can do the Gym Challenge in any order we want, and the only way to do that is with scaling. Like, let's say it is set levels, well, while you'll probably be able to skip a few Gyms, eventually you'll come to a Gym that's too strong and be "forced" to go back and do the Gyms you skipped to get strong enough. Okay, maybe you'll be able to keep up your levels by doing the other two stories instead and be strong enough to do the final 8th Gym as your first, but then what? You beat the strongest Gym, which means all the other Gyms you're going to steamroll them which doesn't sound that exciting. Scaling is really the only way to keep the promise of doing the Gyms in any order and keep the game's difficulty balanced. "But what if they use Battle Facility rules"? There still needs to be scaling done in the backend to have that work unless they always want to lower everyone's Pokemon Levels to like 10 (and remember Battle Facilities don't increases a Pokemon's Level if they're under the Set Level). There has to be scaling, it would make no sense otherwise, like is it that difficult to give each Gym Leader eight teams of various Levels (and with some the only change would likely be just the Levels)?
Website Tour:
14:00: Open World Scavenging: Reading about Arven's goal of cooking recipes, Jake suggests that since the game is open world there might be some scavenging for ingredients to cook recipes with Arven. And I'll admit, scavenging things in Legends: Arceus was a pretty zen thing to do. I wouldn't say it was fun, but I would say it did feel rewarding when it came time to craft things and you had plenty of supplies (and infuriating when you black out and lost like a 3rd of the items you spent a couple of hours collecting, if scavenging for items is back and you can lose them please decrease how much you lose and/or include a way to get them back without connecting online). But that was Legends: Arceus, what about in a main series game? SwSh SORT of had scavenging in the Wild Area, though it was mainly just money fodder items (or items which are useful like Evo Stones but you don't have any Pokemon to use them on so they just accumulate in your Bag until you sell a bunch of them for a lot of money essentially making them money fodder). SwSh did introduce all those curry ingredients, if they let us find Berries and those ingredients by scavenging for the purpose of having Alven make recipes I guess that wouldn't be so bad. We have the PokeMart again for our PokeBall and Potion needs, but getting a healthy & hearty meal? Gonna need someone with a sense of cooking for that!
Clavell The Secret Villain:
Skipping over the whole "he's EVIL" spiel, one oddly interesting thing that was pointed out was that Clavell keeps all his Pokemon in Premier Balls, aka the all white Poke Balls (except the red seal around the middle of it) you only get when you buy 10 normal Poke Balls (normally, not talking about the Poke Ball Shop in Kalos). I'm not quite sure what that says about Clavell's character, like its a deliberate choice so feels like its saying something. That he's rich? Eh, Poke Balls don't seem that expensive, especially to someone who runs an Academy. Well, I guess it could be a joke on how he probably has to buy LOTS of Poke Balls for the students and staff and so also gets Premier Balls in the bundle too as a bonus. So maybe a way to show he keeps the school well stocked thus a good Director? Hmm, maybe that's a bit too subtle. Eh, let's just say its because he has white hair; maybe what he truly needs is a pair of red lens glasses to match.
17+ Points of Interest In Paldea:
Don't worry, only covering six of them:
- 2:00: First Town Unlocks The Game: Going off the idea you can't get the Event Tera Flying Pikachu until 1 or 2 hours into the game when Wi-Fi becomes available, Jake figures by the time you do all the business of getting your Starter, battling Nemona, and running up to the first town that'll be about an hour. You're now in a wide open area with the first Pokemon Center available to you, thus the game has "unlocked" and you can start the open world adventure. While I would say it's plausible that by the time you get to the first town/Pokemon Center you can get the Event Pikachu, I don't think that's when the game "unlocks". Yes, it definitely provides a wide area to explore, but I think you'll discover you're unable to climb the various cliffs around you, the only way forward at some point it up into Mesagoza. The game doesn't unlock until you get the Legendaries to ride around on which I think will be happening after your sent on the Treasure Hunt which may take another hour or two depending on how much they want it to feel like you're attending this Academy and like the staff.
- 9:43: Races Power-up Legendaries: Spitting out ideas what the Racing Flags could be about, Jake suggests that one of the rewards for something which obviously relates to the motorcycle Legendaries would give them a reward like powering them up. Now that thought hadn't occurred to me, and REALLY thinking about it you don't need the Swimming and Flying forms to get around. It could very well be that, if those forms are locked, maybe to unlock them you need to do the Racing Flag events to form a closer bond with the Legendary and unlock not only just the other forms but maybe also make it go faster. With there being 5 Racing Flags, I could see the power-ups being: Faster Dashing, Swim Form, Faster Swimming, Fly Form, Faster Flying. It'll not only give you a strong incentive to do the Racing Flags, but also gives a good reason to take the right/counter-clockwise path as you begin doing the Racing Flags much early.
- 11:39: Waterfall Cave: Of the many places to explore, Jake says one place he's really excited to go to is a cave at the top of a waterfall. I actually never thought about entering the "caves" the waterfalls are coming out of (which there is two of from what I can tell; three if you count the one pouring into the caldera). My question is will be be able to climb up waterfalls? We can climb walls, and we can swim, but can that be combined together? As I said with my map exploration, there's a ton of nook and crannies it's just easier for you to see what you can find. I'm personally more curious about that lone Pokemon Center on the shore southeast.
- 12:42: Connected Gym Buildings: Jake notes the Gym Buildings on the snowy mountain and suggests that, since the battlefield Grusha uses is far from the town, the two Gym Buildings are connected and you them to travel between the battlefield and the town. That's a plausible theory, would explain why there are two Gym Buildings up here. But, if that's true, then we have a missing 8th Gym and that Gym map is "wrong". Well, to address the map is "wrong" part, the map could maybe just have been showing where the Gym Buildings are, not that they are all separate Gyms, maybe as a surprise to the player who thought they were going to take on two Gyms at once. As for where the 8th Gym is, well, we have what I think are two prime locations: Mesagoza of course. and the battlefield in the quarry. At this point I'm done trying to figure out where the Gyms are, no matter where they are I'm gonna conquer them all so it doesn't matter where the 8th is hiding. That said, I did come up with a fun theory that supports there being two Gyms on the snowy mountain and the other one is a Flying Gym: when it comes to snowy mountain sports there's a popular feud: Skiers Vs Snowboarders. Neither likes the other for various reasons, and now that GF made a Snowboarder Gym Leader what if they also decided to make a Skier Gym Leader for Grusha to have a feud with? Just a theory, A GAME TH-
- 14:03: French Connection: Jake had me worried for a second that he was going to suggest the cloud-blocked northeast part was going to lead to Kalos, but he was then quick to say he was joking (though the opportunity is there). Well I just want to put in my two cents: NO. And I'm not even going to say there's an opportunity.
- 15:23: Flying Bridge: We finally end on Jake having a different interpretation of the Poke Ball bridge actually being a suspended battlefield for a Flying Gym Leader. Obviously I don't agree, but I can't fault the interpretation as, looking at it now too, I can also see it being a battlefield. Just in my headcanon, until proven wrong, it would be the battlefield for the Steel Gym (afterall, the Flying Gym is back on the snowy mountain
).
Okay, I think that's it for all my planned stuff!
Imo the main issue with G-Yamask isn't the location based nature but how *small* said location is. (Plus the HP requirement, but that's a whole other issue) The Icy/Mossy Rocks had a fairly generous area of effect and Magnezone/Nosepass required fairly large caves or an entire route and were generally okay with those hoops.
That said, there is no reason why they can't make Magnezone a Thunder Stone (or other item) Evolution.
They did make Magnezone a Thunder Stone evo though? That's how it works in all the gen 8 games. The only Magnetic Area evo they didn't was Probopass in BDSP and even then, it is in PLA.
I followed a few channels that hung with/collaborated with one of the former staff (Derrick Bitner) both before and after parting ways. The context as I was able to follow was that GameXplain still had the staff working extremely hard as tends to be the case for gaming publications (having to playthrough potentially long games on short deadlines on top of creating the actual coverage content within said strict schedule). One of the big members of the team was known for being absent from videos for long periods of time, which was a joke among the viewer base for a while but did turn out to be true that he would leave a lot of projects to other team members at a time. There was also some discussion of substandard payment/monetary compensation for the amount of work being done, even when compared to the dubious rates paid by other VG Coverage sites.
So in short, GameXplain seemed to be running a model/pipeline that they could not fairly support, which resulted in the staff carrying a lot of the work leaving, hence the downscaled rate of their current content production.
As for location-based evolution, the main thing that would need to handle is how to actually allow you to get the level up. We already have the speculation/suggestion that Gym Leader levels won't scale with progress despite the open world, and Wild Pokemon/trainers are even less likely to do so (this is assuming you go before anything on your team is up to the level curve, when EXP Share would help compensate). So while you can take a Pokemon to areas early to quickly get a location Evo, you would need to be carrying Rare/EXP candies around unless they include something to battle in every area akin to Gen 5 Audino grinding (i.e. relatively harmless and able to provide a reasonable EXP gain for leveling), which then has the consideration of if they care about grinding levels ahead of early game then.
Also while sort of on that subject, please do away with at least some amount of "the Pokemon is too strong to catch!" restrictions from SwSh. If you want to make them harder to catch (like a catch rate scale or requiring they be weakened before throwing the ball), sure, maybe you don't want the player to just random catch their way into too strong a team without battling, but allow the possibility from the get go and just let progress ease it up.
One of my favorite things to do in another Monster game (Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker) was to recruit the stronger-than-usual Gigantes monster on the first island, which was a struggle but gave access to a lot of late game monster fusion options and moves even if you were "downgrading" from his rank when fusing him. Access to stronger options when willing to work for them is something I always appreciate the presence of in these games, and the Wild Area/Raid design was basically the ideal testing ground for such options in Pokemon. Movepool and TM/TR access could be a counterbalance if they care about preserving the power curve, or (knowing TPC) just let the acquisition of that much stronger team member reward you itself with an easier time clearing early content with them while they level out your team.
I think the issue with Yamask is less the area was small, its that it was a specific area that had no sort of "Tell" to it.
Nosepass, Magneton can evolve anywhere in within the magnet area (Mt Coronet, New Mauville, Chargestone, Coronet Highlands). These are large distinct areas known for electricity/magnetism.
Crabrawler can evolve anywhere on Lanikila (albeit only the peak area in SM, but they expanded it in USUM to the base of the mountain). This is a large snowy mountain
Leafeon & Glaceon need specific rocks, but the rocks in question are:
1. large
2. noticable
3. unique design
4. you can also interact with them
Yamask needs a specific arch but the arch looks just like all the other archs in the same area and there's nothing about the area its in that catches the eye or known for curses or anything. If they had made a special rock object for it, one that maybe had designs based around Runerigus, it'd be fine.
If they ever bring Yamask-G back I imagine they'll give it a Dusk Stone evolution and will at least have "weird ominous clay area" so its more obvious at a glance if they bring back the specific method.
Nosepass, Magneton can evolve anywhere in within the magnet area (Mt Coronet, New Mauville, Chargestone, Coronet Highlands). These are large distinct areas known for electricity/magnetism.
Crabrawler can evolve anywhere on Lanikila (albeit only the peak area in SM, but they expanded it in USUM to the base of the mountain). This is a large snowy mountain
Leafeon & Glaceon need specific rocks, but the rocks in question are:
1. large
2. noticable
3. unique design
4. you can also interact with them
Yamask needs a specific arch but the arch looks just like all the other archs in the same area and there's nothing about the area its in that catches the eye or known for curses or anything. If they had made a special rock object for it, one that maybe had designs based around Runerigus, it'd be fine.
If they ever bring Yamask-G back I imagine they'll give it a Dusk Stone evolution and will at least have "weird ominous clay area" so its more obvious at a glance if they bring back the specific method.
Popping in for a quick "by the way" to tell y'all how much Paldean Wooper excites me.
Or, not so much Wooper itself, as the fact that it confirms that Paldean forms are a thing. This was something we obviously expected beforehand, but a solid confirmation is better, because it turns a few "unknown unknowns" into "known unknowns". From Pooper's existence, we can infer that other Paldean forms will also exist.
The number of regional forms in each game has been surprisingly consistent, with the three sets of regionals containing 18, 19, and 17 new forms respectively. Although it should be noted that the number was somewhat lower for base SwSh, with 13 regional forms - the remaining six were released later, with the DLC. From the onset, but less so as time went on, there has been a tendency to favour Gen I Pokémon. While I doubt they will return to the absolute dominance of Gen I seen for Galarian forms, it would surprise me if there weren't some among Paldean forms too. And their willingness to move beyond Gen I means crapmons from other generations will have a chance too.
So, yay, more regional forms! There may even be regional evolutions. I'm excitedly awaiting the confirmation of those now.
Or, not so much Wooper itself, as the fact that it confirms that Paldean forms are a thing. This was something we obviously expected beforehand, but a solid confirmation is better, because it turns a few "unknown unknowns" into "known unknowns". From Pooper's existence, we can infer that other Paldean forms will also exist.
The number of regional forms in each game has been surprisingly consistent, with the three sets of regionals containing 18, 19, and 17 new forms respectively. Although it should be noted that the number was somewhat lower for base SwSh, with 13 regional forms - the remaining six were released later, with the DLC. From the onset, but less so as time went on, there has been a tendency to favour Gen I Pokémon. While I doubt they will return to the absolute dominance of Gen I seen for Galarian forms, it would surprise me if there weren't some among Paldean forms too. And their willingness to move beyond Gen I means crapmons from other generations will have a chance too.
So, yay, more regional forms! There may even be regional evolutions. I'm excitedly awaiting the confirmation of those now.
To be fair they will run out of gen 1 pokes to make regional forms of some d--
*looks at Meowth*
ok maybe not.
That aside, what I want them to repeat though (wouldn't be surprised if it happens in a ipotetic DLC) would be "regional legendaries".
I really liked the Kanto Birds 2.0 Electric Boogaloo, I also love their designs, the puns about how their description is "yes but not quite" from Peony, and even the touch of class with their shinyes basically having same color as their Kantonian form.
I don't quite see that happening for the gen 2 dogs (since their lore is that they are dead pokemon reborn as protectors or something like that), and genies + regis got extra members rather than regional forms, but in general I really like them adding extra bits to the old legendaries and not just to regular pokemon.
*looks at Meowth*
ok maybe not.
That aside, what I want them to repeat though (wouldn't be surprised if it happens in a ipotetic DLC) would be "regional legendaries".
I really liked the Kanto Birds 2.0 Electric Boogaloo, I also love their designs, the puns about how their description is "yes but not quite" from Peony, and even the touch of class with their shinyes basically having same color as their Kantonian form.
I don't quite see that happening for the gen 2 dogs (since their lore is that they are dead pokemon reborn as protectors or something like that), and genies + regis got extra members rather than regional forms, but in general I really like them adding extra bits to the old legendaries and not just to regular pokemon.
Dusk Mage Necrozma
formerly XenonHero126
Then as for the remaining minor legendaries that could get Paldean forms, maybe the Tapus would be good, like each Paldean Tapu could guard one corner of Paldea/the DLC area? The later legendaries have a lot more lore than the Kanto birds so it gets harder. Maybe Paldean Cobalion/Terrakion/Virizion?
Yung Dramps
awesome gaming
I just woke up and don't have the tweet on me right now so you'll just have to take my word for it but someone cross-referenced a picture of the protag fighting a Swablu in the 20s and deduced that it was in the very first area. If not outright scaling then I could see each area having a sort of tier system where the encounters in the more easy to reach segments are low level and steadily climb up as you explore deeper.
I think the Tapus are still too recent to get regional forms / additions (though definitely something possible in future).
Potential candidates i can see would be the pixies (they are lake protectors loosely linked to the creation trio, i don't see why there couldnt be more than just these 3), the weird trio of darkrai / cresselia (moon duo only one of which being vgc available) and heatran that has no apparent connection to anything else (a somewhat unique trait amongst legendaryes), and obviously the sword of justice.
The big question for any more Regional Legendaries is how unique the species is supposed to be in lore. To go to one extreme, Mewtwo has a premise that makes having more than MAYBE a second one a massive stretch, much less one that differs wildly enough to be a variant but still identifiable as the same Pokemon species. Latios/Latias on the other hand are a species where nothing has been suggested of them being particularly unique or rare (with their debut movie outright describing the idea that multiple members exist at once AND them being more Sexual Dimorphism on one species like the Nidos than two completely unique ones). Also this is bearing in mind that I recall reading somewhere that the Galarian Birds were named for their resemblance but may or may not biologically share much with the Kanto versions.
Off the top of my head, the most viable options for Variants would be the Eon Duo, Jirachi (based on another wish/star superstition for other cultures), Gen 4 Lake Trio (other versions could tie to other aspects of Mind and Soul, or different applications of their current ones), Swords of Justice, and the Kami Trio/Forces of Nature (Enamorous feels thematically out of place with the Elemental nature of the Genies, so I'm leaving them on the docket despite alt forms and additions).
Other mons you could maybe introduce mons in more roundabout ways, like other grade forms for Zygarde, or different Tao Pokemon if the Dragon divides based on a different conflict (both affecting the new beings and the "shell" that becomes Kyurem), but the latter in particular feels more like an Ultra-Wormhole Otherworld idea than just a difference between geographic settings.
Off the top of my head, the most viable options for Variants would be the Eon Duo, Jirachi (based on another wish/star superstition for other cultures), Gen 4 Lake Trio (other versions could tie to other aspects of Mind and Soul, or different applications of their current ones), Swords of Justice, and the Kami Trio/Forces of Nature (Enamorous feels thematically out of place with the Elemental nature of the Genies, so I'm leaving them on the docket despite alt forms and additions).
Other mons you could maybe introduce mons in more roundabout ways, like other grade forms for Zygarde, or different Tao Pokemon if the Dragon divides based on a different conflict (both affecting the new beings and the "shell" that becomes Kyurem), but the latter in particular feels more like an Ultra-Wormhole Otherworld idea than just a difference between geographic settings.
It's not like the Galarian Birds even had an explanation to why they were like that so I could see them just dropping a legendary as a regional just because
Paldea Groudon, why not, who cares. Turns out there were multiple Groudons who did things in other parts of the world. None of that matters; check out this new lizard we made that will [spins wheel] dominate VGC
Paldea Groudon, why not, who cares. Turns out there were multiple Groudons who did things in other parts of the world. None of that matters; check out this new lizard we made that will [spins wheel] dominate VGC
Fun Fact: The levels Runerigus learns moves at jump up compared to Galarian Yamask at the exact same point Cofagrigus' do in relation to regular Yamask.
Which combined with how unmarked the evolution location is makes me think that it probably just evolved at level 34 like the regular version does until very late in development.
not impossible but they could also have just like copied the cofagrigus moveset levels for parity purposes and always had the evolution method in mind.
As if the weather trio already dominated VGC at one point or another; even Mega Rayquaza’s arrival doesn’t stop Primal Groudon from being an overwhelming powerhouse; likewise, Crowned Zacian may be a problem, but that doesn’t stop Kyogre from ultimately dominating VGC.
If a Paldean weather trio somehow exist, I rather they bring something new rather than “Sandstorm, Hail and suddenly new weather” trio… though that could be interesting on it’s own.